“Every single one of us is good at something. Some of us just give up on what that is before we even discover it. “

=

William Chapman

—- “I told her once i wasn’t good at anything.

She told me survival is a talent. You never need to apologize for how you chose to survive.”

=

Clementine von Radics

—

“To paraphrase someone smarter than me, who still knows nothing, the philosophical task of our age is for each of us to decide what it means to be a successful human being.

I don’t know the answer to that, but I would like to find out.”

=

Ottmer <the futurist>

—

Well. Let me begin by saying, well, being better is better.

Or better said: better is good.

In addition. Being good at something is good.

Those are two basic Life thoughts. Simple thoughts, but kind of important thoughts. Important because they are pervasive throughout civilization, culture, attitudes and certainly drives behavior.

Now. The most basic aspect of this whole thing of people wanting to be really good at something and, I imagine why people want to be passionate about something, is that they have experience with lack of passion. I say that last thought because <here is a Life truth> the reason why we’re not passionate about stuff we’re not really good at is because we aren’t <cannot be> passionate about stuff we suck at.

Here is where it gets a little screwy. Being good at something is a minefield mentally.

Huh? What do you mean <you ask me>??

How many times have you heard some version of the following phrases?

• “Everyone has a special skill!“

• “You just need to practice!“

• “You haven’t tried everything yet!“

• “You better work out what special skill you have and then use it for the rest of your life because if you don’t you’ll live in a dumpster fighting with cats for food!“

That trite advice is fine for people who are good at things, but what if you just suck at everything?

<or at least have sucked at everything you have tried to date>

Well. Here is the good news. It is next to impossible to suck at everything. It is much more likely that “… some of us just give up on what that is before we even discover it.”

As a corollary, in reality, it’s impossible to be good at every single thing you try.

Oh. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you suck. It’s all about perspective and how you define whether you’re good at something. For instance, are you basing how bad you are at something on your own standards or are you comparing yourself to others? If it’s the latter then you need to stop and remind yourself that we are all individuals. You’re not inferior or inept, you’re just different <kind of like snowflakes … okay … maybe not>.

Suffice it to say that insecurities and doubts limit your potential <regardless of whether you suck or are actually good> so if you intend to succeed at something you must first get rid of them.

Ah. But here is the curve ball Life throws at you <or is it a screwball??> — while you are figuring out what you are good at a whole shit load of incompetent assholes around you are trying to convince everyone what they are good at <of which they are actually not good at what they think they are>.

Incompetent people don’t know they are incompetent <in other words … they don’t think they suck>.

——

When asked, most individuals will describe themselves as better-than-average in areas such as leadership, social skills, written expression, or just about anything where the individual has an interest.

This tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the “above-average effect,” and it flies in the face of logic … by definition, descriptive statistics says that it is impossible absurdly improbable for a majority of people to be above average.

It follows, therefore, that a large number of the self-described “above average” individuals are in fact below average in those areas, and they are simply unaware of their incompetence.

——-

It seems that the reason for this phenomenon is obvious:

– The more incompetent someone is in a particular area, the less qualified that person is to assess anyone’s skill in that space, including their own.

– When one fails to recognize that he or she has performed poorly, the individual is left assuming that they have performed well.

Anyway. What this means is that the incompetent tend to grossly overestimate their skills and abilities.

—

“He felt he was himself and did not want to be otherwise. He only wanted to be better than he had been before. “

Leo Tolstoy

—

The Department of Psychology at Cornell University made an effort to determine just how profoundly one mistakenly overestimates one’s own skills in relation to one’s actual abilities.

They made the following predictions before the studies:

– Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.

– Incompetent individuals will suffer from deficient metacognitive skills, in that they will be less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it–be it their own or anyone else’s.

– Incompetent individuals will be less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance by means of social comparison information. In particular, because of their difficulty recognizing competence in others, incompetent individuals will be unable to use information about the choices and performances of others to form more accurate impressions of their own ability.

Rather than showcase the study and the results let me just say … they were correct in their assumptions.

Look. While I have spent a lot of time talking about incompetence and the incompetent, there is nothing more beautiful than watching competence in action. Especially if they are just good, not great, and have the awareness to build on their good in pursuit of … well … not great … but something better.

—-

“No one is good at everything, but everyone is good at something.”

any after school 1990’s special

—-

“Sucking is the first step to being sorta good at something”

Thorin Klosowski

—

And maybe that is why competence <or being good> is so beautiful to watch … it is the pursuit.

The pursuit? Being good at something mostly means you weren’t as good, or even sucked, at some point. This means the true competent people keep pushing.

Being good at something means no dumb questions, no dumb answers and no low <or stagnant> standards. And that is where I believe the whole concept of ‘being good at something’ should be grounded.

It’s not passion.

And, frankly, it may not even be something that comes easily to you.

It is more about holding yourself to some higher standard.

It is about the desire to keep pushing.

It is about being responsible for not quitting.

—-

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, never excuse yourself.”

Henry Ward Beecher

—–

In the end. Set aside ‘higher standards’ or ‘accepting you are good at something’ … in the end I respect … well … caring.

Giving a shit.

Or maybe call it … ‘nerdy as fuck about something.’

—-

“I respect people who get nerdy as fuck about something they love.”

Leah Raeder

——-

Caring enough about what you do is a good thing … and it makes you good at something.

It’s not passion.

It’s maybe not any real ability.

It’s just about the fact that you care.

By the way. Getting back to the first quote I used.

This also suggests, on those tough days and tough stretches in Life, simple survival is a talent because it means you care about Life.

Uhm. And that is a good thing to be good at.

Care about Life and never, never, apologize for how you choose to survive.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

========================

This is about jobs., working, productivity and meaning. I will begin by leveraging off the opening quote and discuss exclusion & inclusion.

Exclusion in work is working in a detached way. You are not really being exploited you are just scraps in the business world. The ones doing the “mindless work.” Unfortunately, disengagement numbers suggest a shitload of people feel like they are in this category.

Inclusion in world, to me, is meaning or finding ‘joy in the task.’

In 1949 Harry F Harlow, Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, outlined an alternative … something he called ‘intrinsic motivation’: “The performance of the task provided intrinsic reward. The joy of the task was its own reward.”

Beyond motivation this idea is also linked to productivity. Inclusion matters because economic knowledge exists in bits & pieces within an organization scattered amongst systems, process & people. This means value creation is often a dynamic discovery process, not a more static system driven process. In other words. The more workers are included in the discovery process the more dynamic the value creation.

Contributions.

Meaning at work truly comes down to one thing – contribution. What I mean by that is if the response to your job/doing (the stimulus) is “I have contributed” <with tangible proof or intangible reward> you will have meaning. Now. Meaning can come to you in a variety of degrees – all powerful in their own way but in totality is most likely attaining the highest order of contribution.

The most basic is “I” have just become better. This is an internalization of personal improvement suggesting “I am not stagnant, I am growing.” The second phase is if you view that your ‘growth’ has contributed to the people most important to you – your team, tribe or department. The third phase is to the organization itself. Something you have done, like a pebble in a pond sending out ripples, has contributed to the larger success of the organization & business. It makes one part of the ‘productivity enterprise so one doesn’t feel inconsequential even if the enterprise is massive. Lastly, is society or community or global. Your little contribution was part of a big contribution positively affecting someone, or some-ones, outside the selling aspect of your business.

Progress.

Simplistically, we all want to get better. Better at being a person, our skills, socially, professionally, for our kids, morally, etc. Therefore. The progress measurement is most likely, at its simplest, “better today than I was yesterday, better tomorrow than I am today.” I am no a motivation expert but if I set up a feedback loop to show this to a worker <doesn’t have to be daily but maybe weekly at minimum> then a worker sees progress tied to ‘contribution’ <value & meaning increase with this alignment>.

To be clear. This is different than milestones, sprints & any measured activity. While those things can be useful to get things done, they do not insure meaningful progress. They are completion checkmarks and meaning needs progress checkmarks.

Decision utility.

To me decision utility, especially when it comes to workplace productivity, is a mix of doing & thinking Most people focus on the doing aspect of decision utility, but I believe everyone likes to ‘think’ in terms of ‘my thoughts matter’ <the harsher version is “I know I’m not stupid and having my thinking contribute to what I do and we do proves I am not”>.

That said. It was Clotaire Rapaille who pointed out in America our heroes are athletes, entrepreneurs, police officers, firefighters, and soldiers – all people who take action. We may respect thinkers, but we don’t celebrate them nearly as much as we do our ‘doers’. As Rapaille said: the American Culture Code for work is WHO YOU ARE. We often seek so much meaning in our jobs, if our job feels meaningless, then “who we are” is meaningless as well <at least in some dimension>. If we feel inspired by our job, if we believe that we are doing something worthwhile in our work, that belief bolsters our sense of identity in that we feel like we have some grander Purpose.

Our work ethic is so strong because at the unconscious level, we believe that if we work hard and improve our professional standing, we become better people <note: that’s not particularly healthy but its good to recognize it>.

I bring in work ethic because this is where game theory plays a role (Jason Fox speaks of game theory as a way of viewing employee motivation). As a reminder, I see decision utility as in thinking & doing. Thinking as in ‘solving a complex issue/problem AND doing something about it.” I first began bringing in game theory when discussing critical thinking games with children in 2010. The fact kids like thinking & game theory ratchets up complexity of problems sequentially as one is solved. Critical thinking at its most basic level is trial & error. However. Game theory also ‘dials down’ complexity to insure one doesn’t get too frustrated with failure. A child gets rewarded for failed attempts as well as successful attempts. In other words, you get value off of decision utility where marginal units are rewarded with higher value <and standard units get rewarded despite failed attempts>. I envision workers would respond just as positively to this activity – a combination of thinking and doing to create some progress.

Lastly, with regard to decision utility, let me lean into ‘marginal units‘ and the economic concept of marginalism. The fact that prices don’t correspond to the total value of all goods in existence but rather the marginal unit (the value of the next unit>. I am not a behavior expert, but I would suggest meaning in work would seem to be of more value to the worker if they were constantly being rewarded for the marginal unit and not just the costs of doing.

Lastly.

Values.

I was tempted to call this ethics, but I tend to believe work is more meaningful when it feel substantive of values (to increase value) and virtue (which is a feeling outcome of doing things with value substance).

“Striving to meet the deepest moral needs of the person also has important and beneficial repercussions at the level of economics. The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred.”

Vatican (encyclical Caritas in Veritate)

Values is, well, the good stuff that infuses all the doing and thinking. As I have said numerous times before, winning the right way crates the highest satisfaction possible <versus just winning>. People feel ‘fuller progress’ if they know they did it ethically, within the rules/laws & with a sense of dignity. I could suggest this values orieneted work feeds the moral soul, but I will not. I will just say we sleep better at night when we do it this way.

Anyway.

Self management permits the internal to be maximized on an individual basis permitting the whole, the business itself, to intervene with regard to eternal problems. This matters because the most basic economic problem is allocation – how the business can allocate its scare resources so as to best serve the interests of the business as a whole. Business should seek to maximize its people resources, minds & bodies, t maximize its inherent other scarce resources.

This leads me to systems & processes (often called best practices) which are based on restrictive assumptions to create an equilibrium between inputs & outputs for efficiencies.

If the individual is empowered to maximize their productive (on all measures listed above) the internal maximization of resources naturally occurs so that the organization itself can assess external challenges which may demand resources. This ying & yang insures maximum use of people, process & resources.

So. Here is what I think.

We are a doing people. When our doing doesn’t seem to offer value, or meaning, it strikes at us emotionally. Our soul is in doing. We find our way by saying “let’s go to work” on something. Something big. Something … well … impossible. Because in the end we are dreamers. We do because we dream … and dream big. Clotaire Rapaille also suggested this. He said that the American Culture Code for People is DREAM. Serve us in giving us an impossible assignment and let us go do it.

For in the end, for all the culture code speak and thoughts about what makes us happy, People are pretty simple. We like making the impossible possible. And that is what makes People, well, People. At the heart of dreams and making the impossible possible is, well, doing. I struggle to find a better meaningful value than “doing a dream.”

Ok. I do not believe in New Year’s resolutions <although I do believe in wishing on stars>. But that is me.

Everyone else?

I have heard somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of people in the US make wishes at New Years.

Maybe 75% of those people are drunk and only 39% remember the wishes <that’s about 37% of total population if you didn’t have your abacus>.

Uhm. Hope you didn’t waste your time on the math because it doesn’t mean shit. It doesn’t mean shit because chief wish dispenser, Jiminy Cricket, is no longer with us. This rumor has been with us for years. The demise of Jiminy Cricket has typically attributed to that lying bastard Pinocchio <although Pinocchio himself was caught in a tragic situation where Luigi was snowbound after a freak Italian blizzard and needed some wood to boil water for pasta or starve to death>.

Anyway. Jiminy was thriving and dispensing wishes upon stars (especially busy on New Year’s eves) for many years. Hence the reason so many of you actually did have wishes come true on occasion. Unfortunately, while newspapers seem to miss it, Jiminy quietly passed away several years ago from lingering complications from DDT exposure before it was outlawed as a pesticide. Therefore. If you wished upon a star this New Year’s eve you are screwed.

Sorry. Next year skip the wish and just have another cocktail.

I would note that beyond making wishes come true he was also a spokescricket for Insects International, the group that provides relief to insects that have lost their homes to natural disasters.

In addition, in his last years Jiminy had been doing some volunteer work for the Pentagon in Afghanistan. It is a little known fact but al Qaeda are big wishers on stars and Jiminy was doing his part to provide some wish misdirection.

<note: the Pentagon has no comment>

At one point, after hearing of Jiminy’s loss, Osama Bin Laden was quoted as saying ‘we will now have to create our own falling stars.’

<CIA has not commented on threat status to civilization>

With all that said.

We wish Jiminy the best.

And know, if you wished upon a star this New Year’s Eve, it won’t come true.

“It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.”

—

Sydney J. Harris

=====

There is neither a right nor a wrong way of reflective thinking, there are just questions to explore.

Reflective thinking process starts with you. Before you can begin to assess the words and ideas of others, you need to pause and identify and examine your own thoughts.

Doing this involves revisiting your prior experience and knowledge of the topic you are exploring. It also involves considering how and why you think the way you do.

The examination of your beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions forms the foundation of your understanding.

Reflective thinking demands that you recognise that you bring valuable knowledge to every experience. It helps you therefore to recognise and clarify the important connections between what you already know and what you are learning. It is a way of helping you to become an active, aware and critical learner.

—–

UNSW Australia

====

Well. I have written dozens of posts with regard to self esteem and being yourself and, yet, this quote made me sit back and think a little more about the importance of how you view yourself.

When I started writing this thought I am sharing and titled this post I didn’t realize there was actually something called ‘reflective thinking.’ To be clear, today’s thought from me is just that – a thought – and if you want to read up on reflective thinking and research and stuff like that go for it. In general I tend to believe all of us would be a little better off if we actively were aware of the ‘reflective thinking principles’ as we wandered our way thru Life.

Regardless. My thoughts.

By the way … this thought is also very <very> relatable to business in that how a business, and its organization/employees, feels toward themselves impacts their feelings toward other people <target audience, customers, competitors, etc.>.

Anyway. Life, us, and what is in our heads.

Very <most> often we think about ‘what do others think about’ or ‘how people view such and such’ and don’t stop and think about “why do I care?”

We should. What you care about with regard to yourself impacts what you care about externally.

It creates expectations, desires, attitudes and even your behavior.

The danger in ‘non reflective thinking’ is multi dimensional, but the main danger is that means you view the world through a focus group of one – yourself. And that means you view the world thru a lens of what you feel comfortable with about yourself as well as what you feel less comfortable with. It filters the view positively and negatively. Regardless. It creates a filter.

Worse?

That filter is always being adjusted by self doubt, how you deal with doubt & uncertainty, and what is happening to you day in and day out.

Whoa.

Hold on.

There are a bunch of confident people shouting “I have no self doubt !!! … I know what I am comfortable with and I am comfortable in my own skin !!!!”

Well. In all the exclamation points I would suggest ‘you doth protest too much.’ Confident or not we all doubt ourselves sometimes and we all certainly question ourselves at all times. By the way. There is nothing wrong with that. It is natural.

However, we should reflect upon the fact that natural human activity affects how we view everyone and everything else around us. It makes us comfortable and uncomfortable with things and people in an uneven way. Or maybe in a less than desirable inconsistency which can not only confuse other people <this is our inconsistent filter where even if it is just a minor inconsistency, it can create a more major judgement impact> it can actually confuse us.

Yes. Be aware. We like consistency within ourselves it kind of proves to ourselves that we have our shit together.

This becomes confusing in reflection because, on the other hand, If you think about it … you sometimes celebrate the inconsistency as ‘an ability to not treat everyone the same’ and it suggests that we can adapt to new and different experiences.

Well. Most times we are wrong in that thought. We are fairly consistent. The reality is your own filter has most likely varied because of something that has nothing to do with them or the experience but rather something that has affected your own filter PRIOR to that experience.

Even worse?

Your filter could be affected by how <insert an “uh oh” here> … uhm … you feel about yourself that day and in that moment.

<yikes>

In the end.

I don’t think we like to admit this to ourselves: the fact that how we view ourselves taints how we view others.

Shit.

I am not sure most of us even recognize it. We far more often reflect upon ourselves as a way of thinking about how to improve ourselves or maybe reflect upon ‘I is what I is.’ Nothing wrong with that <in a balanced way>.

Self awareness is good. What is even better is to be aware that what you learn is reflected in how you view others … and at its worst … how you judge others. Your personal comfort, or discomfort, affects your comfort or discomfort in others.

If you recognize this maybe you will be a little more appreciative of others in ways you have never imagined.

Shit. If you recognize this maybe you will gain some valuable insight into yourself.

Well. I saw this quote in a book last night and immediately wrote it on a piece of paper.

Could you ever imagine a business person suggesting something like this? … suggesting surprising the world with one of the most ordinary common things in Life?

Everyone would think you were fucking crazy.

Everyone would start shouting …

“We need something new!!”

“We need to be unique!!”

Well. Let’s face it. Most new things suck.

Most new ideas are just bad. And most new shit just stinks.

All that said ……

“With an apple I will astonish the world.”

I wish more businesses would think this way. Within the ordinary always resides a small mundane thing which is incredibly easy to view as mundane, as common, as useless, or even pedantic.

Yet each ‘ordinary thing’ also has the capacity, if we are open to it, to usher us into an experience of something extraordinary, usher us into some new way of looking at the ordinary, usher us into some new way of experiencing the ordinary.

Even the ordinary contains infinite possibilities <if we would only seek it there>.

Within finite often resides the infinite.

Within each of us ordinary people resides something extraordinary.

I mention that last point about us ordinary everyday schmucks <people> because we need to remind ourselves something experts have been trying to tell us for quite some time … “ no one is born a genius … genius takes time and opportunity to develop.”

David Shenk <The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ> described genius as a process, not something someone has or is borne with, but rather something that someone does.

We all have some genius within us.

We all have the ability to take something ordinary and surprise the world with something extraordinary.

This belief, this understanding of self, far too often is trampled in the rush to get things done and the search for ‘something new.’

As we rush up & down the hallways of our businesses we tend to overlook the opportunities in the ordinary.

As we rush up & down the hallways of our businesses we tend to overlook opportunities, and potential, found in the seemingly ordinary people.

<sigh>

Surprise the world with an apple.

What an awesome thought. What an awesome thing to actually do in business. What do I mean?

I can guarantee 2 things if you surprise the world with an apple:

business success:its called optimal newness. If you take something ordinary and make it newly extraordinary to people it offers them something familiar and something extraordinarily new. people love that.

personal success: I don’t know if its monetary success, but i do know there is little more satisfying than walking into a business, taking something ordinary that 99% of people have overlooked or dismissed, and bringing it to Life in a way no one had really thought of doing so before.

“Cease, Man, to mourn, to weep, to wail; enjoy thy shining hour of sun; We dance along Death’s icy brink, but is the dance less full of fun?”

–

Richard Francis Burton

============

Well. This is about attitude and business and the occasions in your work life when you have the opportunity to dance on the icy brink of Death.

Oh. And I will make the point that dancing is … well … dancing.

Now. Unfortunately many people don’t look at dancing on any icy brink of death that way. They look at where their feet are instead of what their feet are doing. They get freaked because they are being asked to dance along Death’s icy brink.

Let’s be clear about this moment. You may be on the icy brink of Death <in some business situation>.

And yet.

The sun is out.

The spotlight is on.

My point? The icy brink moments are not the dark days. They are absolutely not the plodding grind it out days. Nor are they the days burdened by mistakes or failure. These are the days where, as you dance on the brink, everything is clear and uncluttered and bright and warm and, well, let’s identify them as the moments where you sense — “this is it.” Yeah. This is “it”… one of those moments where you go big or go home.

These are the moments which business people dream of <or you should>.

You know what I mean … THOSE moments.

Everything clears, and is clear, and you have the opportunity to dance. To do your thing. To … well … suffice it to say many of in business dream of these moments. It is here I will point out they are often few and far between.

Yet. So often, far too often, people hesitate to take the opportunity to dance.

Instead.

People mourn.

People weep.

People wail.

People gnash their teeth in despair.

People “wilt.”

They don’t see the opportunity to dance. They only see that their feet stand on the icy brink of Death. They only see uncertainty and <possible> death if they slip.

Now. Let me be clear. No really good business person actually aims to dance on the icy brink of Death. But that’s not really the point. Much of business is simply managing the moments that arise. You see the moments and some shit you can control as well as know most you cannot control. And the majority of the time these moments to dance, your moment, is not created by any plan you have developed but rather in spite of your plan. No plan goes as planned. And therein lies the dances that occur on the icy brink of Death.

And I say that because a shitload of people don’t dance because they are too busy regrouping around the ‘plan’ to see what went wrong. They gather around to discuss why the hell we have this <unfortunate> ‘opportunity’ to dance ON THE ICY BRINK OF DEATH <they moan>. Then sit around the table and gnash their teeth … and wring their hands … and seek to blame someone.

In other words, do anything but dance.

And you <as in the people who do not shrink in these moments> want to frickin’ dance.

Well. Those who want to dance in those moments? Those are the people you are looking for in business. They do not focus on the uncertainty of dancing on an icy brink, they are only certain they know the dance.They are the ones who see dancing as dancing — where they dance is almost irrelevant to them. They aren’t clueless as to the location of the dance <therefore they are careful where they put their feet> but other than that they don’t care where the dance is — just let them dance.

They enjoy the sun, the clarity, they ignore the moaning and wailing, and they frickin’ dance.

My point?

Pretty simple. In business all that matters is being able to dance and enjoy it. Because if you enjoy it you will be successful. If you focus on where you are dancing … well … I imagine in some way you are claiming dancing is best, or better, in some places rather than others. These people, I would argue, seek the wrong things & actually can be a little dangerous to your business.

But. The people who just like to dance anywhere? Whew. I believe those who don’t care where they dance are the best of the best. The business people you kill for. The ones you pay a little extra for to keep around.

But that’s me. That’s how I think about this.

I know I have seen some great dancers, mostly younger, who never get an opportunity to dance on the icy brink of Death not because opportunities don’t exist, but because senior management does:

<a> anything but dance when on the icy brink,

<b> anything to get away from the icy brink or

<c> anything to explain why the opportunity to dance was actually occurring on the icy brink <or all of these or any combination of these>.

Once again. Good business people don’t seek dancing on the icy brink of Death. But neither do they not dance there if the opportunity arises.

Anyway.

Just think about it. Because in the end dancing in business is not only exhilarating in that it’s usually the stuff that gets the heart pumping and when good stuff happens but, well, that’s kind of why you are working for gods sake … those moments.

I mean, if you think about it, all the rest of your working life is nothing but … well … no dancing.

“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.”

—

Evelyn Waugh

===

Ok. Sometimes when people suggest ‘live in the now’ I think they are a little flippant and possibly naïve.

I say this as a person who recognizes that if you manage the ‘now’ well, uhm, pretty much everything else, especially the future, will take care of itself.

Regardless. The reason why I think these fortune cookie philosophers are a little naïve is that it ignores the fact that most people get squeezed not really by the grind or ‘to do list’, but rather mentally by the past & the future.

You just get squeezed in your head which basically clutters up your head so much the present seems infinitely small.

Well.

Unfortunately.

The present is small.

It just gets even smaller when squeezed by past and future. And then you start trying to cram in all the tangible shit you need to do <as well as the things you don’t really need to do but have convinced yourself it is ‘need’>.

Holy shit.

This means “don’t blink” because if you do the present has completely disappeared. While it makes my head hurt just typing this there is a reason I bring it up.

While I have written ad nausea about managing time in general and how we focus on the wrong shit <spending more time making lists than actually doing shit> I would suggest that if you want to manage your time more effectively you need to get your head out of the ‘past & future’ head game. If you do that effectively than you have effectively given yourself at east a chance <no guarantee> you will effectively maximize your present time.

I am not suggesting this will make living in the now any easier, but it will certainly declutter your present increasing the likelihood you may actually be able to not only maximize your present tangibly … but also emotionally.

Maximizing your present, the “now”, is hard. Fucking hard. Anyone who suggests it is easy or ‘you should try and do it more’ is … well … fucking crazy.

Reality?

You get squeezed by time <shit to do crammed into a smaller bag of time>.

You get squeezed by head <past & future>.

You get squeezed by heart <what I would love to do … or family … or …>.

You get squeezed by wallet <I gotta pay the bills for god’s sake!>.

Therefore, unsqueezing at least something makes it better.

If you can unsqueeze from between past and future, that seems like the easiest and smartest one to attempt.

But, hey, that’s me.

The present is a pretty cluttered moment for everyone. And decluttering the present is incredibly hard — for everyone. I imagine my point is if you cannot figure out a way of decluttering your present you will have absolutely zero, nada, zilch chance of living in the “now” and, maybe worse, you will never even be able to recognize the present from the past or the future – it will all get squeezed into one small moment after another small moment of ‘nothingness‘ crammed with a lot of ‘somethings.’

It was Frederick W. Taylor’s purpose to make the laborer worthy of his hire; to make the hire worthy of the laborer; to make the standard of living and the conditions of working worthy to be called American. The American standard of living implies a wage adequate for proper housing and food and clothing, for proper education and recreation, and for insurance against those contingencies of sickness, accident, unemployment, premature death or superannuation, which fall so heavily upon the working classes. That standard implies hours of labor sufficiently short to permit those who work to perform also their duties as citizens and to share in the enjoyment of life. That standard implies postponement of the working period to an age which enables the child to develop into a rounded man or woman. That standard implies working conditions which are not only consistent with the demands of health and safety, but are also such as may make work for others what it was for Taylor—the greatest of life’s joys.

Louis D Brandeis

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Business has always been part art & part science. The challenge became when maximizing profitability became an imperative because that is when science was prioritized over the art.

This has been true for quite some time but the dynamics of it have changed over time. As effectiveness or maximizing value (even of employees) has been subjugated to efficiency this business thinking has increasingly had to face increased transparency & business savviness. What the transparency has done has put an increased pressure on being able to articulate effectiveness, or the art, of doing business. that said. Efficiency is always easier to articulate, therefore, the majority erred on the side of efficiency (driving closer & closer to commodity-like) despite talking about ‘brand value’ and the importance of effectiveness & intangible value. Effectiveness, or value, became the sacred haven of the few who could articulate the art & the intangible of business.

Art is making a comeback mostly because people, employees, feel there has to be something more than what exists. Recent studies show something like 87% of employees are disengaged. I would argue that is a reflection of emphasis on efficiency & lack of emphasis on effectiveness (and the vision which tends to encourage intangible investment in a business life>. This art aspect is not just a battle between ROI versus meaning but also between those who have created their success from the ‘science’ and those who believe there must be something better.

The problem is Science has a head start. This science aspect was elevated in late 1910, when Louis Brandeis, a fifty-three-year-old lawyer from Boston, held a meeting at an apartment in New York with a bunch of experts who, at Brandeis’s urging, decided to call what they were experts at “scientific management” (one of the attendees suggested calling it “efficiency”). Management typically revolves around 2 names, Gilbreth who favored worker input & Taylor who thought men were “mules”. Yet, it was Brandeis who advocated industrial democracy, i.e., workers must have a voice in how a business is run. Brandeis insisted that, if workers were to enjoy sufficient leisure to participate in a democratic society, productivity had to be increased but within limits of individual capacity.

This is where we bring in psychologist Abraham Maslow who explored the idea of human motivation. Through his research in 1943, he identified primary needs people must satisfy before moving forward. This became known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a five-level pyramid (not developed by him but a good illustration of the pattern of motivation). To get from one level to the next, one has to master the basics first. Productivity can work in much the same way, according to Tamara Myles, a Certified Professional Organizer (CPO) and author of The Secret to Peak Productivity (AMACOM, February 2014). Inspired by Maslow’s work, Myles created the Peak Productivity Pyramid—an approach to a more productive life.

“[The system makes it] so easy to see the entire roadmap, to identify where you are and where you are headed,” Myles says. “It is, after all, much easier to get where you are going if you have directions, if you have a map.”

All that said. I began with a Brandeis quote to make a point. The point is once business gets on a slippery slope gravity has a nasty habit of taking over. In this case Brandeis had a solid idea from which people inevitably gravitated toward the simplistic, easiest & most tangible aspect of it and then pounded that aspect into its most meaningless definition.

That’s what we do.

Maslow was right in that people desire more than simply being productive. They desire what I call substantive productivity and others call joy of task, meaning & Purpose. But that’s difficult to quantify in the short term, only the long term.

It’s kind of like quantifying brand value. Brand value is a complex idea in which many moving parts, difficult to quantify in isolation, coalesce into a greater value at some indeterminate place & time in the future. It “just is” which is not one of the most comforting things to say in business. Imagine that conversation when it comes to productivity. A bunch of business people would faint.

Regardless. Two things are happening today.

Proof of substantive productivity (or an engaged organization focused on effective work not efficient work) is increasing. Businesses will balk (the infamous: good for them but it will not work in my business) but proof is growing and businesses will have to choose between status quo and transformation at their own peril.

People are desiring ‘more’ than status quo. And the more, this time, is not money. Efficiency drove employees to say “if I do this, pay me more $” and inevitably they got more money, but not more fulfillment. Having pursued that $ path they are now open to a ‘what could fulfill me’ path.

This means what was old is new again. The business world is revisiting Brandies concept with fresh eyes. It’s quite possible we had to walk the efficiency road in order to know it would not reach the destination we desired but, regardless, effectiveness is having its day. It will not just happen and those of us who are good, or relatively good, at articulating the benefits of the intangible need to bring our A game.

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

―

Anne Bradstreet

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……… tweet from Republican National Party on June 14, 2018 ………….

(stepping back to January 2017)

Well.

Yesterday was an interestingly disturbing day to begin “the new era of The United States of America.”

I listened to the Trump inauguration speech with growing horror. It had all the trappings of authoritarianism wrapped snugly in a blanket of patriotism & promises of wealth, security, strength and ‘greatness.’

I listened to it not just as a citizen but as a business guy.

Yeah. Populism can be seen in business just as it can be seen in politics. In business it can be called ‘the cult mentality’ and more often than not its leader is a ‘less-than-benevolent’ dictator. Let’s call it a ‘join, or else’ culture. You can drive membership in this culture a couple of ways … both grounded in fear.

Fear of losing <part 1>.Outsiders are trying to steal what is ours … people who don’t believe in what we believe in are trying to steal what is ours … join us because we are the people who count and matter.

I do not want to lose what is rightfully mine.

Fear of losing <part 2>.I am on the outside looking in and … well … holy shit … if I don’t join I am gonna lose everything <or be branded as a non joiner>.

I will join because if I don’t I am up shit creek without a paddle and lose what I have.

Businesses try this shit all the time. It is their way of building a strong culture, claiming it is inclusive, albeit inclusive is grounded by ‘a tight set of club rules.’ They will argue it is not a tight set but rather a basic construct which binds people in a good way … you call it tomato and I call it rotten. This Trump version of populism is, well, it goes beyond corporate cult culture. This version is close to being batshit crazy dangerous thought leadership.

Let’s look at the brochure and talk a minute with the Trump Club recruiter.

The cover of the brochure suggests an unstoppable America, driven solely by self-interest, in other words, our Club wins at all costs at the expense of anyone who stands in our way! <“if you want to win, join us” it says …>.

It further reads with threatening all those who might stand in the way of this Club and it’s winning/great objective. It contains an adamant stance of ‘no real choice’, i.e., a demanded unity not an asked for unity.

Yeah.

Some of the club benefits look awful good in the brochure … more & better jobs, stronger economy, stronger security, less business regulations and country pride. And then I turn over the brochure just to check out the legalese, the cost of the benefits as it were, to explore how the promises of the Club will be delivered.

The headline on the back of the brochure really wanted me to join this club … the message of “join today because today is the day the people become the rulers of this country.” I vaguely remember that being the call of the French Revolution but it sounds cool <although I could swear we, the people, have been voting in people as representatives for awhile>.

But. Whew. It sounds good. I like it.

It feels empowering and inspirational with the added comfort that I will no longer be one of “the forgotten people which will be forgotten no longer.” I know for sure that would like to not be forgotten and being part of a club would be nice and … well … gosh … uhm … now that I think about it … I didn’t know I had been forgotten.

The recruiter leans forward and says “of course you were, the intellectual globalist elite in Washington and around the world have been keeping you down … they don’t care about you … they have forgotten that it was you that made them part of the wealthy elite.”

Ok. But didn’t your Club President build his wealth off the backs of ‘forgotten people’ and … well … it seems like they aren’t any better off but he is a shitload better off, doesn’t it?

Oh … no, no, no … he appreciates everything they have done for him. Hey. And don’t you want to be wealthy too?

I look down at the brochure and I see the bolded ‘make wealthy’ words and have to ask the club recruiter, decked out in an ‘America first’ hat and neatly pressed ‘make America great’ uniform like shirt, I ask the recruiter … “this becoming wealthy thing … its sounds an awful lot like Amway.”

Oh, no, it is nothing like that at all. Our Club will make everything great for everyone and you will have great opportunities to get the wealth you have always deserved, but haven’t got, because the lazy, less than hard working elite will not get it anymore … we will make sure you get your fair share. Hey. Look at this picture of the Club President in his office … check out the gold curtains … the gold rug and the gold fixtures … that is wealth. That is what you can be part of!

Oh.

And, look, if you join today you get a hat <which you should wear as often as possible so that we can tell who is in the club and who isn’t>.

And, even better, we should have some additional pieces of apparel you can wear soon. In fact … we will have special uniforms & badges for the original club members to showcase their elite status in the club … everyone will want to wear them.

Ok. One last question … your club is “God’s chosen.” I didn’t know God chose … I thought he was all about equal among all men. Does this mean that other clubs don’t believe in God or does God just favor us? And does this mean I have to believe in your version of God and … well … what exactly is your version of God?

“Oh.

Well.

We are a Christian based club … but of course we accept anyone. But don’t forget … Christianity, above all, outlines all the values which lead to a better version of yourself … and, well, that is what we want all Club members to be able to achieve. Everyone should have values, don’t you think?”

Whew. This is fucking crazy shit going on

To be clear. A shitload of the club leaders and followers are going to try and draw some false comparisons and equivalents to past American heroes.

To be clear. This is significantly different than Thomas Jefferson’s plea for unity in his inaugural address in 1800 — “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”

The Trump club has one principle and one opinion.

There is no room for anything else. More important than color of skin, religion, gender … this may actually be my root concern with ‘the club’.

The main principle?

Believe what I believe … or you are not a true believer.

That kind of seems to be the club. Kind of an “us versus them” attitude … uhm … although us <being a US citizen> is actually also them <being US citizens>.

“Oh no … no … why wouldn’t you believe in the United States of America if you lived in there? … everyone believes that. And if they don’t? … well … they should.”

Anyway. Oh. One last question. I didn’t hear it anywhere from the Club President or see it in the brochure … do you guys have a constitution?

Oh, we don’t need one. We just demand a ‘total allegiance to the Club’ … oh … which believes the same things as the country wants … so you should be all for it.”

(ME) Gosh. I am not sure I can join this club … I already have a constitution I live by … and my allegiance is, first & foremost, to that and not some Club and how they think. <period … end of statement>

Look. The one thing Trump was 100% right on is that January 20, 2017 was the dawn of a new era.

“Now comes the hour of action.”

That was the call for the Trump Club. “Join or else”is what should be heard.

Just to be clear.

I am a believer in God <however you want to define it>.

I am a patriot <however you want to define it>.

I am a proud American <however you want to define it>.

But I am not joining the club called “Trump America.”

In fact … I say ‘fuck you and your fucking club.’

As for what I will do? …………….

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“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”

<Tim Burton … from Alice in Wonderland movie but never in Lewis Carroll’s books>

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Ok.

Regardless of whether this is a made up literary quote or not it is a thoughtful thought. It is kind of Tim Burton’s version of Mr. Margorium’s “37 seconds is a lifetime if used well.” Today I am writing about living instead of waiting, doing instead of thinking about doing, and recognizing that even if you do live & do some moments in time are different than others <although they all surely look the same as they appear on the watch>.

It all begins with recognizing Time is a funny thing.

It can ebb and flow all within a finite amount of time.

It can increase speed and decrease speed and yet remain an extremely identifiable finite amount of time.

It can take years of asking and creating questions and, yet, a second to answer everything.

All of which makes me think of two things:

– Memorable moments

– Moment of clarity

Obviously they are not the same thing … but could end up being the same moment. Anyway.

Memorable moments.

I sometimes call these untangled moments. Life is a tangled snarled bunch of moments. But every once in a while you inadvertently pull the right end of the string and the knot is released … everything becomes untangled.

It can be a smile from some across the room.

It can be a falling star.

It can be something really big — a seemingly small decision made amongst many.

It can even be, in business, tugging one project out of a seemingly endless list of projects to do.

Frankly … you don’t notice many of these ‘one seconds’ when they happen.

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“In real life turning points are sneaky. They pass by unlabeled and unheeded. Opportunities are missed, catastrophes unwittingly celebrated. Turning points are only uncovered later, by historians who seek to bring order to a lifetime of tangled moments.”

Kate Morton

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They happen, shit gets done, and only in reflection you realize that these seconds last forever — they are a moment etched in time. These are truly ‘a second that is forever.’ I have just explained one of Life’s most interesting paradox so now you can tell someone how one second can also be forever.

Moments of clarity

Clarity is an amazing thing. It can be forced externally <let’s call these ‘oh shit’ moments> and internally <I call these ‘lock picking’ moments>.

Oh shit moments. Physiologically ‘oh shit’ moments actually causes the mind to become intensely focused. This physiological response actually permits our brains to record more data than normal. Physiologically what also happens is that memory then ends up replaying the information in slow motion mostly to assimilate all the additional information stored in there.

Think of it like filming something with a high speed camera and then replaying it at a normal speed.

I cannot figure out if time slows down … or our mind speeds up … to accommodate more information. Doesn’t really matter. Oh shit makes us focus and when focused our minds are pretty amazing computers. They create moments of clarity. These moments may be fleeting <and some of us actually miss the clarity moment as it passes by> and we become simply overwhelmed by all the data.

That leads me to the internally forced moment of clarity.

The first is what I just explained above. Focused minds overwhelmed by data offer an open window to a moment in clarity.

The challenge? Life slams the window shut pretty frickin’ fast. You have to almost train yourself, and your mind, to see thru the window for the moment it is open. The second is truly the ‘lock picking’ moment.

Lock picking moments. Why do I call it ‘lock picking’?

I don’t know how to crack a safe or pick a lock <and I imagine I wouldn’t broadcast it if I did> but I do know what it feels like to have a moment of clarity when thinking about something. It is like having all the tumblers in the lock suddenly align and you hear the click of the lock unlocking. And, yes, I swear I hear a sound in my head when it happens. Oh. And it is a frickin’ beautiful sound. I am often asked to describe it, and I do so, but I cannot explain the noise of the moment of clarity when the tumblers align.

I imagine it is just in my head. But I tell people that is what you are seeking. When everything just falls into place your mind will tell you in some form or fashion that you have entered into a moment of clarity. Interestingly <maybe this is just me> but I have found that these moments are also very similar to the first one I described in that Life doesn’t hold that window open for long. What I mean is that I have learned over time to write it down or say it out loud to someone when the tumblers fall into place. Maybe the mind simply opens that door which you just unlocked and closes it behind you and you immediately enter a new hallway with dozens of other locked doors and the mind moves on.

I don’t know.

All I know is that moments of clarity are simply moments. They may echo in eternity <lasting forever> … but only if you actually recognize them. If you don’t? That one second just gets buried under the mound of other missed seconds.

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“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

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And, yet, within the multitude of drops, the limitless ocean called Life, one second can be forever.

Uhm. “Can.” You just have to make sure you pay attention.

That said. I will end with two relevant quotes from two great thinker/writers:

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“Forever is made up of now.” – Emily Dickinson.

———–

“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

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Kurt & Emily probably loved Alice in Wonderland. There is no why because how can there be in a world of nonsense … where we seek to find some sense? The ‘forever one seconds’ always end up being trapped in amber.

Anyway. Here you go … the full Tim Burton script:

“It is better to be feared than loved.”

“The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?

Alice: I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would.”

“I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours”

”Alice: How long is forever? White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second”

In the end I can only chuckle.

One second? Of course one second can be forever <and I am not entirely bonkers>. You just have to pay attention to moments and then make the moment matter.